


Gotham Ghost Stories

by redboard



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU
Genre: Bat Family, Family, Gen, Spooky Ghost Hunting, Suspense, You can tell ive been just binge watching Buzzfeed Unsolved like a loser
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 15:36:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12560604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redboard/pseuds/redboard
Summary: "So, next to us we have the old abandoned Elliot Sanatorium. It used to operate long ago, mostly treating stuff like TB and the such, but back in 1924 the sanatorium closed under mysterious and undisclosed reasons. There is no record as for the causes of this hospital closing..." Then he looked directly at the camera. "But there’s theories."





	Gotham Ghost Stories

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween? I don't celebrate this. But hey!

"Red, remind me again, why are we here?"

The camera focused on the figure of Nightwing, he looked restless. A voice, belonging to Red Robin, behind the camera answered. "We’re here to prove that ghosts are real."

"No, were here to prove this is idiotic, Dr- Red Robin." The camera shifted its focus towards the small teen, which lifted a hand to shield himself from it. "You dolt! What are you recording this for?"

"Posterity. Also, video recording is a common practice for ghost hunting. _Duh_. Anyways were also here because Flash dared Nightwing. So, this is your fault, Wing."

Nightwing groaned.

A different voice came from behind the camera, it turned and Red Hood came into frame. "Let’s just get this over with; I have plans to steal children’s candy tonight."

"Hood..."

"Hey, don’t worry; it’ll only be your candy. To repay for this bullshit."

"Okay so, let me lay down the ground for this."

The camera was settled in place, all three brothers in the frame. Red Robin walked into it before continuing, facing towards his brothers. "So, next to us we have the old abandoned Elliot Sanatorium. It used to operate long ago, mostly treating stuff like TB and the such, but back in 1924 the sanatorium closed under mysterious and undisclosed reasons. There is no record as for the causes of this hospital closing..." Then he looked directly at the camera. "But there’s theories."

"Oh, do tell." Red Hood said through a yawn. He had forgone the helmet, as Tim had wanted to capture every single reaction, or lack thereof.

Tim picked up the camera and did a panning shot of the building, "If you look at the windows, there’s markings up the panes. Like something you’d see in a burnt building. However there’s no register of this place ever catching fire. Another theory, and one of the most popular, is that the hospital was just a cover and that it was actually a high security prison, of the kind of criminal we now keep in Arkham. People think something happened during a breakout. But all of this is just speculation.

"So now were going to go in, and see if there’s ghosts." Said Tim, almost excitedly. "You guys ready?"

Dick looked like he wanted to have a second look at his dinner. While, even though he wanted to disguise it, Damian was looking around eagerly.

Jason raised his hand. "Okay, but why are we in costume."

"Well we don’t know for sure what we might find. There might be hostile ghosts."

"Or an actual criminal that loves to eat up that sort of boloney you tried to feed us, Red Robin."

"Or that," he admitted. "In any case, this makes it more fun. Let’s go."

\--

"So, this hospital is actually quite different from most," Tim started narrating, as he followed after his brothers walking down the dark halls of the abandoned hospital. The hallways were dark with the exception of the flashlights Tim had insisted on using. No night vision, no sir. They were going to do this by the book if he could help it. "The walls were actually painted in dark tones. You see, to make contrast with the white gowns the patients wore. It made it easier to notice if anyone was out of their room when they shouldn’t. There are witnesses that swore up and down you can actually see a little girl floating at the end of the hall in the second floor."

Dick groaned. "Why are they always little girls..."

"Your fear of women is going to be your undoing, Big Bird." Jason laughed.

"So what are we meant to do, just stand here and wait for the ghost?"

"No, um, we can go into the rooms." Tim pointed at one of the hospital rooms. All the doors had been removed for security reasons, which was creepy as hell as the rooms were completely pitch black.

"No, no way I’m going in there."

"Come on, it’s just a room. I’ve been trapped in a coffin, this is child’s play." Jason said, as he entered the room after Damian.

Dick was right behind him, "That was _you_! _I_ , on the other hand-"

Tim followed after with his camera, making sure his hand was steady as he walked. As he was turning to enter the room he saw something register in the edge of the frame. He turned back to look but there was nothing at the end of the hallway.

"You coming, Red?" Said Dick from the room.

Tim just shrugged and entered.

"Cozy." Dick said uncomfortably. He was right to be. The room was too small for the four of them to be standing in. Between the cot and the tables and overturned furniture it was sort of awkward.

"Now what." said Robin.

"Okay, okay. So I got this cool gadget here, it’s a white noise machine. Not the bullshit ones you get on amazon that make whale noises or whatever." He heard Damian click his tongue for some unknown reason. "I made this one. It actually produces white noise.  So the idea is we use this device to capture any distortion in the randomized spectral energy of the signal, this way-"

"God. You are. Such a nerd." Jason groaned. "Just get to the damn point."

Tim glared for a second, before clearing his voice and continuing. "The point is, with this we can capture possible EVPs."

"Meaning..." Dick prompted. He knew where this was going.

"Meaning, if there ARE ghosts. This can help us know if they can communicate." He turned the machine on, which let out a quiet but constant hum.

"So we ask questions?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

"No I have no questions for ghosts. Nope."

"Well _I_ am not doing this. It is idiotic."

The camera finally turned to Red Hood, who sighed. "Fine. Okay. Hey, Mr. Ghost. Or, Ms.? Whatever. If you’re like, here, give us a sign or whatever."

Silence.

More silence.

"Wait," Said Jason.

"What?" The camera focusing on him.

"I think it’s trying to... Hold on, let me get closer to the machine." He inched closer to the white noise machine. Tim followed with the camera, intent in catching whatever Jason thought he was hearing.

Then Jason grabbed the machine and hurled it at Tim’s head, who yelped an "Ow!" as it bounced off his head. Jason busted out laughing. "You shoulda seen all your faces, I can’t believe all of you chumps really believe in this."

"That’s not funny Hood!"

"Hey, I’m here to gather proof. The real chumps are those who prefer to remain ignorant. Also, you’re a literal walking zombie, like, come on." Said Tim annoyed, bending down to pick out the now completely useless 1500 dollar worth white noise machine. 1500 dollar trash now.

They left the room, when Jason stopped in his track. He’d heard a shuffle just above his head. Dust was falling, as if something had moved in the top floor. "Uh. Hey, I think there’s something in the second floor."

"Yeah sure, okay." They continued walking out. Jason narrowed his eyes, but after a beat, he followed.

\--

In the hallway of the second floor, Tim started speaking again. "I have more toys, would you,"

"Just, out with it Red Robin." Sneered Robin.

"It’s light! Motion sensors actually. I’ll put them on the floor, and it’s supposed to detect any movement, even if we can’t see what causes it." He pulled a bunch of small round semi-spheres and handed some to Damian who was forced to cup his hands to hold them. "Here, help me set them up."

"I’m not your servant."

"Okay, then imagine I’m helping _you_ set them up. Whatever."

"-tt- This is foolish." He said, but started placing lights in a line.

Dick had a small smile on his face. His brothers were cooperating and that was a good thing! Brotherly bonding never got old. He shivered, and ran his hands over his arms. He only wished they would do it in normal ways like normal families. This sucked major ass.

Dick turned to look at Jason who was now squinting and looking around carefully their surroundings. He nudged him on the ribs with his elbows. "Finally got in the mood?"

"Still think this is bull."

The two youngest made their way back from their trek at the end of the hallway. The lights were turning on as they walked; it looked kinda cool, if he was being honest.

"Now we wait." Said Tim, who sounded extremely satisfied with his work. Damian nodded next to him. "If there’s any ghosts or entities in this place." Red Robin announced. "Please walk towards us."

Silence.

Then, one of the lights turned on at the end of the hall then immediately snuffed out. They all made exclamations of surprise on the likes of "DID YOU SEE THAT" "OH MY GOD WERE GOING TO DIE" and a mutter of "…Probably a rat or something."

They waited some more, but nothing happened. Tim beamed at his brothers, "This trip is looking up, huh! Let’s go towards the light."

"Do NOT walk towards the light" Said Dick, half joking and half serious. That had given him chills.

They walked over, picking up the rest of the lights on the way. Tim inspected the light that had turned on. Then he looked around. There were two rooms at the sides. "Maybe, whatever it was went into one of the rooms?"

"Fred voice: lets split up, gang." Said Jason. Causing Tim to laugh.

"Who’s Fred?" Said Damian.

"Oh man, Rob we’re _so_ binge watching Scooby Doo when we get back, you’ll love it."

"-tt-"

"Okay, so Jason and I will take the room on the right and you and Damian take the one on the left?"

"Wait, are we actually splitting up?" Said Dick, his face falling.

His brother’s answer was entering the room at their right, leaving him alone with Damian. He sighed. "Okay, let’s get over this."

Damian looked him over and held his hand, hauling him into the room. Dick blinked at this, this was new. He held tightly to Robin’s hand, he was going to make the most of this experience.

"Why are you scared?" Damian asked once they were looking around the empty room.

"Whaaaat? Scared? Puh-lease, I’m not scared!" Dick drawled. Damian just raised his eyebrow. "Okay maybe just a bit unnerved. This place reminds me of the manor when I was younger, just. All these portraits of people I didnt know, looking down at me. I don't know."

"But the Manor doesn’t make you like this."

"Well, that’s because it’s not just me anymore I guess?" He shrugged.

Damian looked down, as if considering the answer. Then he looked away and mumbled "I’m here too, so you don’t have to be afraid."

God he could just hug him forever, his little brother was so adorable. He wished more people were able to see this part of him, but also, it felt special.

They got distracted by yelling and gunshots coming from the other room. They looked at each oter before breaking into a run across the hallway and into the room Tim and Jason had gone to.

"Shit. Shit."

"Hood! What’s wrong? We heard gunshots!"

"I don’t know, I wasn’t looking then I turned around and Red was being dragged into the floor… Apparently the floorboards come off." He pointed at the spot with his flashlight. There were drag marks of disrupted dust in the shape of hands. Right next to it was Tim’s camera.

"He was being dragged and you _shot_ at him? What’s _wrong_ with you?"

Jason shrugged, "What was I supposed to do? Wait, where’s the demon brat?"

"Shit, Robin!" Nightwing shouted. "Damn it. Come on!" He said, running out of the room, Jason was behind him. After a second he returned, picked up the camera and left again.

On the second floor Dick ran towards the room directly under the one they had been in. "Robin!"

"In here." Came a voice from the opposite room. He sounded annoyed.

When the eldest came in, they saw both their brothers bound together with a rope, sitting on the floor. They ran towards them to free them, when there was a sudden _THUD_ behind them, they turned, ready to throw hands.

The mysterious figure raised its hands and said. "Boo."

It was Black Bat. Behind her appeared Batgirl, tears were running from her eyes. "God this was hilarious!" Steph gave a high-five to Cass, who seemed to agree. "You were all like _AAHH_ and then like _EEK._ God what a bunch of losers." She said, wiping off a tear from her face.

"Incredible use of your free time, Batgirl. This explains why your training results are so subpar."

"Says the boy who just went looking for ghosts."

"-tt-"

Once free of the binds, Tim walked over to Jason to retrieve his camera.

"Where you in on this?" Asked Dick.

"No, believe me, I’m not that evil." Steph gave him a look. "Okay maybe I am, but I didn’t this time. They got me too."

"S'right! That way you learn to invite us too next time. Cass here LOVES Ghost Hunters." Said Steph, draping an arm over, Cass who was just smiling.

"Yes."

"Well, that was a bust. Let’s go get candy or whatever." Announced Tim.

"Thank GOD, finally!" Said Dick, holding Damian’s hand and dragging him out of the room.

They made their way towards the exit at a slow pace, talking about revenge and all the sugar you can eat. Tim was reviewing the recording, to check that nothing had been damaged. Then he stopped dead on his track. Jason, who had been walking behind him, bumped into him. "Hey, watch it."

Tim just turned towards him and said "Look at this."

He showed him the footage. It was just after Nightwing and Red Hood had left the room in the second floor. The camera was pointing directly to the dark hallway and into the room at the other side of it, where Dick and Damian had been.

The footage started crackling with noise, and what appeared to be a little girls silhouette appeared for the split of a second. Tim paused on the frame and zoomed. She was looking directly into the camera. She didn’t look happy at all.

Red Hood and Red Robin exchanged looks and then looked back towards the hallway where they had just come from.

"Let’s never talk about this ever?"

"Deal."


End file.
